Citizens pay a great amount of tax,
to support systems like schools and city government, libraries and public
services. I would like to find a
way to get colleges to help drive technology advancements and possibly
management to merge some budgets.
We are in an age of Technology that we can really minimize some workflow
and administrative process. Lets
be creative and use those to our advantage allowing the majority of our money to
be available for people focused on their duties of protecting and
educating. We should also be able
to find ways to combine budgets for Insurance, technology integration, communications,
supplies, third party research, council and more. I am working on this direction today with Washington State
University Civil Engineering department and the completion of sidewalks along
Evergreen Highway.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
NTSA
I was at City Council on July 8th, just to listen...
Two members of another Neighborhood Association (Marrion) came to City Council to stress their request for a sidewalk along NE 104th from Mill Plain North. This is a very busy area, with a Wal- Mart right next door. For 10 years they have been requesting updates and planning on a sidewalk.
The City's answer: That the Marrion NA should work with the NTSA on getting into a approval process to be funded. I agree with that part.
The City manager then went on to say that the NTSA gets $100,000 per year from the City to work with. Seems generous right, however with just over 60 Neighborhood associations wanting to lobby for this money, it leaves many of us in disbelief that our projects will ever get funded.
I truly believe the City needs to find ways to increase this to a minimum of $1,000,000 per year as we (Amy Asivido and myself) were told over 10 years ago at City Council by the then City Manager. If you read my "why" this is back to square one, the NTSA was not getting $1,000,000 per year from the City......
How do we find this money to support the Neighborhoods?
- Try to get the City to negotiate with the County for more revenue from Property Tax? When was the last time the City tried to negotiate that?
Two members of another Neighborhood Association (Marrion) came to City Council to stress their request for a sidewalk along NE 104th from Mill Plain North. This is a very busy area, with a Wal- Mart right next door. For 10 years they have been requesting updates and planning on a sidewalk.
The City's answer: That the Marrion NA should work with the NTSA on getting into a approval process to be funded. I agree with that part.
The City manager then went on to say that the NTSA gets $100,000 per year from the City to work with. Seems generous right, however with just over 60 Neighborhood associations wanting to lobby for this money, it leaves many of us in disbelief that our projects will ever get funded.
I truly believe the City needs to find ways to increase this to a minimum of $1,000,000 per year as we (Amy Asivido and myself) were told over 10 years ago at City Council by the then City Manager. If you read my "why" this is back to square one, the NTSA was not getting $1,000,000 per year from the City......
How do we find this money to support the Neighborhoods?
- Try to get the City to negotiate with the County for more revenue from Property Tax? When was the last time the City tried to negotiate that?
Monday, July 1, 2013
Is Light Rail Fiscally Responsible?
I spent some time doing research on some of the nations transportation systems, specifically Light Rail. If People are wondering why our roads are not maintained, look at this beast of a financial burden. Portland strikes me as the most upside down, closing schools and public resources to contribute upwards of $240,000,000 per year to a light rail system from local Employment tax. We are raised to spend wisely, not over extend ourselves, and be responsible citizens, it does not take an economics degree to clearly see these Light Rail systems is not Fiscally Responsible.
Transportation financials
C-Tran –
Looking for 2012
2011 shows going from a
$500,000 loss to almost $6.9M (I believe this was for the purchase of some new
buses, pretty reasonable price tag)
TriMet –
http://trimet.org/pdfs/publications/2012-audited-financial-statements.pdf
$488M in operating revenue (includes local income tax contribution of $248M)
$488M in operating revenue (includes local income tax contribution of $248M)
$65M loss in operating costs
before capital contributions
$134M in capital contributions
Phoenix
http://www.valleymetro.org/images/uploads/lightrail_publications/Rail_CAFR_12.18.12FINAL.pdf
$31M in operating revenue
http://www.valleymetro.org/images/uploads/lightrail_publications/Rail_CAFR_12.18.12FINAL.pdf
$31M in operating revenue
$47M
loss before capital contributions
$27M
in capital contributions
$19M
asset depreciation (-1.7%)
Los Angeles
Not
online – I have on CD. LA does not separate out Light rail from the rest of
their transportation system.
Denver
http://www.rtd-denver.com/PDF_Files/Financial_Reports/2012Comprehensive_Annual_Financial_Report.pdf
http://www.rtd-denver.com/PDF_Files/Financial_Reports/2012Comprehensive_Annual_Financial_Report.pdf
$118M
in operating revenue
$489M
operating loss 2012
$311M
in capital contributions
Sacramento (all transportation)
$136M in operating Revenue
$27M loss before state and
federal contributions. This one is an anomaly and asset appreciation after the
state and federal contributions.
Dallas
$80M operating Revenue
$227M operating loss
$197M in capital
contributions
Philadelphia
$477M in operating revenue
$49M in operation loss after
capital and federal contributions
-$161M in asset loss
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